Parent Conference Notes 2015

Only one more day until the weekend . . . but that one more day involves Halloween. Ho boy. (That is not a typo. That is me sucking in my breath.)

Wish me luck — our school gets to dress up as our favorite book character.

And no one will be checking to see if their costume is actually matched up with a book. So who knows what will be walking into my room tomorrow. It’s a little unsettling, if you ask me. But no one asked me.

At least it is still a MINIMUM DAY tomorrow. And yes, I’m bragging.

A few of us were talking today about how successful our conferences were this year and how we felt really good about how well we managed our time. We’re pretty sure it’s because we changed the way we presented our Parent Conference Notes. You can read more about it {HERE} but the low down is that I never go over report cards with parents.

Never.

Ever.

Ever.

NEVER, I said. You can read why {HERE} but I definitely have my reasons and they’re good ones, too. This is a personal preference but my whole team does it this way, too. If you go over the report card — that is totally fine. Just don’t ask me to do it. 😉

Instead, I go over their progress and performance in each subject. I used to type up notes individually for every kid (all 32!!!) prior to Parent Conference Week. !!!!!!

In other words, I HAD NO LIFE AND THE LIFE I DID HAVE INVOLVED TYPING ON A COMPUTER. (Isn’t it ironic that I happen to be doing that this very moment?)

This year, two of my teammates came up with a brilliant idea. And don’t say that you already do this or I might have to have some chocolate and a glass of wine as an appetizer for dinner. (We won’t go over how wine and chocolate are actually a perfectly acceptable appetizer in many households. Mainly mine. But whatever.)

My team sat down and we looked at the report card, and our grades, and what we wanted to present during each 20 minute conference slot, and we came up with this template:

We just made 32 copies of this page and completed it for each student accordingly. Depending on the child, I might have checked Math as a strength, but I might have also checked Math as something to work on if subtraction was a particular struggle. I just wrote the word subtraction next to it as a reminder of what to say during the conference.

I might have also checked Behavior as a strength and also as something to work on . . . because for example, one little girl might just be the sweetest thing ever in all the land, but she might also take forever to line up or come to the carpet or transition to her seat or finish a task and so you tell the parents about it and they say oh yes, we know, she takes forever in everything, she is always the last one to get up from the dinner table, she says she really likes her chicken dinner and she wants to enjoy this chicken dinner and this chicken is just so savory . . . This is a true story and made me laugh so hard! Either I was delirious from having 12 conferences in one day or it is really funny.

Anyway.

People.

This template was SO MUCH faster to prepare. I can’t even tell you.

Check, check, check . . . jot a note . . . check, check, check . . .

🙂

It helped me stay on pace for a twenty minute conference and I looked totally prepared and organized. And that’s all I care about.

I don't typically write any notes but often find myself chatting it up and going over the 20 minutes. This year, I'm going to try your format. While I only have 21 students, my memory isn't what it used to be! Thanks a bunch! We teach ALL DAY and conference at night! Argh!!!!

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